Customer Reviews

The Darkest Jungle: The True Story of the Darien Expedition and America's Ill-Fated Race to Connect the Seas

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Author Todd Balf's "The Darkest Jungle" comes along as the latest in a glut of recent books about historical expeditions that came to grief because they were ill-equiped, poorly led, misguided, or some combination of the three. The United States' Darien Expedition of 1854, led by earnest Naval Lieutenant Issac Strain fell squarely into the last category. Misled by erroneous maps drawn by previous charlatan explorers, the Darien Expedition set off across the Panamanian ismuth in seach of a viable ship canal route and became hopelessly lost. Six men of the party starved to death, and most of the rest would have followed suit but for a heoric rescue effort led by Strain himself.

"The Darkest Jungle" is a well written book that tells the story of the Strain party with a minimum of hyperbole. Particularly gruesome are Balf's depictions of the ravaging effects that starvation and parasites had on the members of the party. As an added bonus, in the last chapter Balf briefly describes his own travels in the expedition's footsteps.

The story of the Darien party isn't an epic, like that of the Scott party in Anarctica for example, but it still makes for enjoyable reading for anybody who likes real-life adventure tales.

An engrossing adventure story that describes the ultimate jungle trek gone bad. Authentic details starkly convey the expedition's desperate ordeal as they attempt to discover the shortest route between two oceans in Panama in the 1850's. I found the epilogue a satisfying wrap-up to the story as author Todd Balf details his own experiences 150 years later - almost as grueling without the tragedy. Another aspect of the book that I found fascinating was the first hand inforamtion on the Damien rain forest - one of the last unexplored regions on the planet.

This catchy little history book shows us how deceptively brutal the Panamanian isthmus can really be. Of course, long before the actual Panama Canal was completed, the region had been obsessed over by all types of explorers and speculators wanting to create the ultimate shortcut for world travel. This book focuses on the 1854 exploratory mission of Isaac Strain and his men, in search of a possible route for a canal in the Darien region of the isthmus, which ultimately was not selected for the canal. While Panama may appear to be just a skinny little strip of land, it is actually up to 100 miles across with steep mountains, punishing weather, the worst tropical diseases and insects, rivers that go in all the wrong directions, and the most impenetrable jungles on Earth. Here Balf documents the harrowing ordeal of Strain and his men, as the team ultimately discovered that the Darien region was definitely not suitable for a canal, losing several men along the way under gruesome conditions of starvation and suffering. Some parts of this book are quite terrifying as guys start dropping dead in the worst possible ways.

This mostly fascinating vignette is held back a little by Balf's rather thin and wandering writing style, as the characters (particularly Strain) fail to really come to life. Meanwhile, there are two different stories about the rescue of the nearly-dead Strain and his associates after months of being lost in the festering jungle. In the sensationalistic introduction, meant to draw the reader in, Strain is near death when rescued but dramatically fights his way back to lucidity. But later, in the actual historical account, he was certainly in ill-health but still competently commanding his men. This is one of several examples of inconsistency in this otherwise solid, if intellectually skinny, account. An added bonus is the epilogue in which Balf tries to retrace the steps of the Strain party, and finds for himself (and us) how unexpectedly treacherous Panama is even today. [~doomsdayer520~]

The 1850's was known as the "canal era," in U.S. history. "Commerce was King," and President Franklin Pierce was an agressive expansionist who viewed the nation's borders expanding to Cuba and beyond. Moreover, Pierce was no less determined to be the first country to find a canal route on the Isthmus of Panama. At the time, the traditional sailing from east to west was around Cape Horn, "one of the most storm-ravaged passages in seafaring," and a four-month voyage to boot. A Darien Canal would cut the tough trip to California in half.

To this end, Todd Balf's "The Darkest Jungle: The True Story of the Darien Expedition and America's Ill-Fated Race to Connect the Seas," is a stirring tale of the 27-member exploring group and its dashing leader, Lieutenant Isaac Strain. The author (also an accomplished researcher) explains how the search across the Panama Isthmus was an old idea. In 1503, Christopher Columbus, on his fourth and final voyage carefully combed the Panama coast for the isthums but grew disgusted and abandoned the search. In 1513, Vasco Nunez de Balboa was the first European to see the Pacific from a peak on the Darian but did not successfully negotiate a passage.

Consequently, the January 19, 1854 U.S. Darien Exploring Expedition was an ambitious undertaking filled with great risk. There was also trememdous economic considerations involved, with both the United Kingdom and France having declared intentions to march into the Darian with their own joint expedition in early 1854. Fortunately, Lieutanent Strain's instincts were outstanding and the quality of the American survival skills were impressive. Nevertheless, it was a painful and deadly race into the jungle.

Strain's leadership was crucial...especially when the maps they went into the jungle with proved faulty. As commander of the men Strain worked hard, used sensible planning and employed strong group dynamics to survive. Ultimately, Strain, Frederick Avery (a New York City "Pioneer" hired in Cartegena), and seamen James Goldman and Henry Wilson were the advance party that barely averted death by starvation and disease to make it to the Pacific outlet on March 9, 1854.

Patriotism played a large role in surviving. Afterwards, the men stated they looked upon the service as perhaps the most important that they ever rendered to the country. Although there were some critics the expedition primarily returned home as heroes having proved conclusively that "no open doors to the seas," existed in the Isthmus. This book is well-written and a great read. Highly Recommended.

Bert Ruiz

Balf does a great job of bringing readers up to speed with the time period the narrative takes place in, since most readers wouldn't know much of the race between the United States and Britain to find a path through central America and the various attempts before Strain's. The narrative itself reads extremely well, I finished this book in just a few days, yet I remember much of the details, particularly the botflies, which make me shudder to even read about. I agree with other reviewers who recommend it to adventure readers as well as history fans. 'Skeletons On The Zahara" by Dean King is also another worthwhile read, though I prefer Balf's less intrusive background information.

The deceivingly thin Panamanian isthmus, where the giant eco-systems of the Atlantic / Carriben and of the Pacific converge in a sort of tropical perfect storm, has the highest bio-diversity concentration of any place on the planet. At a special slice of this isthmus, Darien, the distance from the Atlantic side to the Pacific is a mere 40 miles. This 40 mile stretch however is a knurled tangle of ravines and bottomless jungle that has swallowed more than a few men's dreams of bridging the gap between the oceans. This is a story of the ill fated U.S. 1854 expedition, during a period of canal fever, that quenched the sum of a nation's ambition despite it's best efforts -fortunately only temporarily. What results is an amazing tale of dedication, sruvival, and the power of patriotism and the belief in a cause that compels the survivors to push on till eventual rescue.

The book takes you along with an expedition led by an adventuresome U.S. Navy Lieutenant named Isaac Strain. Strain's past is as fascinating as the man and the expedition. Born in a relatively sleepy farming community on the decline since it was far off the new railroad lines, you get a sense of the wanderlust that infects so many people, and the rapid changes of America from the land of Jeffersonian farmer statesmen to industrialized leader of the modern world. The mid 19th century world Strain explored in the Navy included such places as travelling straight across Patagonia in South America, to Borneo in South East Asia.

The Darien would prove to be unconquerable, not just to Strain and his men but to the British and French as well. The U.S. expedition really gets started in Cartagena Colombia on the Atlantic side. It put in there to gather supplies and experts before making landfall in Darien, a still untamed land of Indians who were at best cautious of foreigners at that time. Despite what appears to be early progress the expedition quickly becomes lost in the maze of rivers and ravines, running out of food, catching tropical disease, and eventually suffering death after death.

Faced with a stark reality Strain and a select few men break off from the exhausted main body of the group -which painstakingly circles as it tries to find its way out of the darkest jungle - to seek help. The outcome and the trials both groups must endure are simply amazing.

One of a long string of survival adventure books set in exotic lands and times, that has the added advantage of being absolutely true. Others inlcude: Skeletons on the Zahara, In the Heart of the Sea, and The Last Run.

...I am an expat American/Panamanian, and this book is factual to a tee. Before it shut down in the 80's, I even got to ride on the Trans-Isthmian railroad trains back and forth from Colón(Aspinwall)to Panamá, and vice-versa. My father, a Korean War vet and decorated hero, was once stationed at the Army's JOTC(Jungle Operations Training Center)in Fort Sherman, Atlantic and would tell me and my sisters grueling stories of the hardships of the bush, and the many ways there are to "buy the farm, tropical style" when in "Green Hell". (We especially loved his tales of the fauna, like the J.C. lizards!!) He told us nothing in Korea surpassed the dangers he knew and faced when in the field with his men playing war games!
Asides from that, the indian tribes in the Darién are called the Chocoe indians, they arent Kuna perse, but closely related. The Chocoe go about virtually naked and the women still are mainly topless and in grass kirts, whilst true Kuna women wear a lot of clothes, headscarves, all richly embroidered in their distinctive patterns called the mola, and bracelets and earrings, noserings, etc. Kuna tribes inhabit the archipelago de San Blas, and the mainland Darién is mainly Chocoe territory. The Chocoe aborigines were once head-hunters, and used poisen darts to great effect. There are also the Guaymí indians, who mainly live on the peninsula of Azuero area of Panamá. They too have colourful long dresses with embroidered hems and sleeves.
Panamá has a very rich history, sadly unknown to the world. The Mayan civilization, for example, used Panamá as a crossroads and meeting place, and so did the other great empires, The Aztec and Incan, to rendevouz and trade, conduct commerce, and discuss foreign relations, long before Europeans ever dreamed up a scheme to unify the oceans for the very same purpose! The Pacific owes its name to Balboa, who "discovered" it from a peak in Darién, Panamá! Also, Old Panamá City(Panamá La Vieja)was the richest port of al in Colonial Spanish times, the main reason pirate Captain Henry Morgan sacked it in the 1600's. Nowadays, this country is growing richer and richer by the year, with plans for a bigger canal in the works and a major Cruise port, a Trump tower investment, and the tallest residential building in the world, 102-104 floors, called the Ice Tower! The economy is very good, the dollar is the currency, and there is a banking system that is unmatched worldwide, besides the canal and the Duty Free Zone in Colón.
All in all, Darién however remains a fierce virgin forest, guarding her secrets. This book taught even me, living here now for more than 20 years, how very much this portion of the world remains unexplored, and under-appreciated. An a-plus effort all around. Recommended, by one who lives in PANAMA and knows!

I found this book while randomly browsing the stacks in my local library. Got caught up in the excellent adventure and great writing as soon as I opened it. The only thing lacking is a good map or two on which to trace Issac Strain's travels.

I have read much on Panama over the years most of which were tales of the French and then US efforts to construct the great canal. Before the canal could be built however, the question was where. One of the first attempts to answer this was an effort by the American Government to explore the feasability of a route at Darien in what is now Panama (then New Granada). The book documents the unfortunate effort which was doomed from the start because of false information provided by a charlatan named Dr. Edward Cullen whose claims were re-enforced by a reputable engineer of the day, Lionel Gisborne.

The trials of Lt. Isaac Strain and his party in their crossing of the Isthmus of Darien under the most brutal conditions imagineable is one of the most interesting tales of determination and survival against all odds that I have ever read. The book also provides a great deal of information about the Panama of the day as well as the politics behind the survey. Many insights into colorful characters of the Isthmus, including Texas Ranger Ran Runnels, add much to this truly amazing story. Much information about the Kuna Indians of the area is also of interest. If you enjoy history and exploration this book is a fine read and a must for your library.

Todd Balf tells the story of 33 year old US Navy Lieutenant Isaac Strain and the race for an Atlantic and Pacific ship canal.

He tells of their struggle to survive when they become lost in the jungle and of Strain's dedication to getting his men out.

The story was well told. The book was hard to put down.